Alaska Air purchasing six Boeing Extended Range aircraftAlaska Airlines (ALK) is purchasing six more Boeing (BA) 737-900 Extended Range aircraft, valued at $594M. Boeing's current list price. The new planes, four scheduled for delivery in 2016 and two in 2017, bring Alaska's total of locally manufactured jets on order to 79.

Car sales rose in Europe last month, NY Times saysEuropean car sales increased 6.7% in January, versus the same period a year earlier, data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association indicates, according to The New York Times. January was the 17th straight month that European car sales have increased, but they remain well below the levels they reached before the financial crisis, the newspaper stated. Publicly traded companies in the space include Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), Fiat S.p.A. (FIATY), Ford (F), General Motors (GM), Honda (HMC), Nissan (NSANY), Toyota (TM) and Volkswagen (VLKAY). Reference Link

AT&T to match Google Fiber speed, pricing in Kansas City area, KC Star saysAT&T (T) announced on Sunday that it would offer Internet service in Kansas City and several of itssuburbs, with the same speed and pricing as Internet service provided by Google's Google Fiber service in the region, according to The Kansas City Star. Reference Link

Cisco partners with France to invest $100M in French startups, TechCrunch saysFrench Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced Monday a partnership with Cisco that will see the company investing $100M in French startups in coming years, reports TechCrunch, citing government statements and remarks by Cisco CEO John Chambers. The partnership also involves collaborating on cybersecurity, "smart" networks and cities, and an education initiative aimed at teaching network infrastructure to 200,000 people. Reference Link

Boeing awarded $29.5M contract for laser weapons on Navy shipsBoeing said it has been awarded a $29.5M contract to design and develop a beam control system that could provide exceptional accuracy for laser weapons on U.S. Navy warships.